Putting the mass in communications.

This past semester, I’ve learned a lot about the innards of media writing and just how it relates to the rest of the world. Before coming into this class, I did not know just how much went into media writing, especially how important the use of GSP is. I see now that I know that I have made the right decision in the major I chose and I hope I will continue to enjoy what I am doing as I get more involved. In addition to this, I have enjoyed putting out these blog posts. It really is a liberating feeling to, in a sense, basically free write about how I felt about what is going on in the world and what happens in pop culture. And while I am not a broadcast major, but a media production major, I am glad I got to learn just what the people at news stations and newspapers go through in order to put out the current events everyday. This class was a great stepping stone, and I am sure that I will continue to learn more as I go on.

With public relations and advertising, they have very similar goals. However, they do serve different purposes. For one, public relations is solely to hype up a person or an object so that they look good. For example, publicizing how Chris Brown is doing charity after saying outrageous comments on Instagram, is an example of showing the public the good in people to cover up controversy. On the other hand, in advertising, people basically brag on themselves or an event in order to garner interest for others to want to come out. Making advertisements about Coca-Cola, for example, is all about hyping up how Coco-Cola is the superior soda. The ways the two are alike is that they both focus on the positives of an object. The main purpose of these two is to make people want to go out to an event or to gain attention to a person in a positive light.

Writing broadcast and print news have many things in common, but are two completely different mediums. For broadcast, the main difference between that and print is the layout in which it is presented. Broadcast uses a table with two columns in order to differentiate between what the speaker is saying and the video on screen. In addition to this, the use of sound clips have to be implemented in order for the anchor to know at what point to pause. In contrast, print is directly to the point, involving a lead and answering WWWWWH. In addition to this, the major details are included in the beginning allowing lesser details being included at the end. What both have in common is that they both use leads to open the subject. Other things include using quotes from witnesses or key speakers in order to get outside perspectives on what the news story is about. If I could choose one, it would have to be broadcast. Considering that I do not buy newspapers often, for me broadcast would be more accessible since I usually have my laptop or a television near.

So much can be misconstrued online. This is a major problem with communicating to the world for the fact that stories can mislead and people can misunderstand how something should be interpreted. The main aspects that are responsible are Twitter and the some media outlets. With a website like Twitter where everyone can share their thoughts, facts can be heavily tainted. With some users believing they have all the facts about a certain topic, they can pass on false information easily to the next listener. And even though official news programs have own verified account, most users only go off of what they see first. And in addition to this, news outlets like Fox News have become infamous for their unofficial sources and sending them out to impressionable viewers. Reasons like these show the negative side of communication. Just because we have freedom of speech does not always mean that what is said will always be factual.

We now live in a world where communication ranges from different mediums. Some the most useful forms that have came up in recent times is the use of social media outlets like: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Facebook changed the way users can connect to others, while at the same time giving people a way to know about others without even asking. Twitter then took this format and expanded on the socializing aspect by giving users only 140 characters and implementing hashtags. The way Twitter used the hashtag made it easier for users to find out other’s views on subjects involving the news, entertainment, and even fellow peers. I believe Twitter’s use of the social media layout has made better use of the communication among people and has provided a faster news outlet for breaking stories, but it should not be relied solely on. We should take hold of these new forms of communication, but we should never neglect the ones that came before like the newspaper, radio, and regular news broadcasts.

The stress with finals is always imminent. The semester seems as though there is nothing but free time, with nothing but assignments and praying to pass the next exam taking up a majority of the time spent here. What I fail to realize each year is that the more time I spend focusing on the next assignment, the faster time goes by until it is time for the grand finale. Right now, I am sitting in the library looking at all of my fellow classmates try to drill an entire 16 weeks worth of lessons into their head just so they can maintain their averages to be sure that they qualify for their classification. And even though I’ve never stepped into this library this semester (or the last two), I’m hoping that studying outside my room will provide some sort of good luck with this last week looming over our heads.

The fact that Kobe Bryant is now retiring is a true wake up call. Now I’ve never been a basketball fan, but this news of him retiring shows just how much time has passed. Since I could remember, Kobe Bryant was always a name heard in pop culture. His presence has always been there even though I never found interest in an NBA game. But now that he is retiring, it should make people realize, especially to millenials, just how old they really are. This man has been playing professional basketball since 1996. I was born in 1996. Living in a world where Kobe Bryant doesn’t play basketball to me is like like living in a world where the sun never comes up; it’s just supposed to happen. And to top it all off, Kobe’s only 37. This dude has been around for all these years, and yet he still hasn’t touched to point in age where a midlife crisis should occur. Time is so different to each generation.